Inhabiting Implication In Racial Oppression And In Relational Psychoanalysis

What does it feel like to encounter ourselves and one another as implicated subjects, both in our everyday lives and in the context of our work as clinicians, and how does this matter? With contributions from a diverse group of relational psychoanalytic thinkers, this book reads Michael Rothberg’s concept of the implicated subject—the notion that we are continuously implicated in injustices even when not perpetrators—as calling us to elaborate what it feels like to inhabit such subjectivities in relation to others both similarly and differently situated. Implication and anti-Black racism are central to many chapters, with attention given to the unique vulnerability of racial minority immigrants, to Native American genocide, and to the implication of ordinary Israelis in the oppression of Palestinians. The book makes the case that the therapist’s ongoing openness to learning of our own implication in enactments is central to a relational sensibility and to a progressive psychoanalysis. As a contribution to the necessary and long-overdue conversation within the psychoanalytic field about racism, social injustice, and ways to move toward a just society, this book will be essential for all relational psychoanalysts and psychotherapists.

In this book, Jill Salberg and Sue Grand offer an overview of the psychoanalytic work on transgenerational trauma, rooting their perspective in attachment theory, and the social-ethical turn of Relational psychoanalysis. Transgenerational Trauma: A Contemporary Introduction is a cutting-edge study of trauma transmission across generations. Salberg and Grand consider how our forebears' trauma can leave a scar on our lives, our bodies, and on our world. They posit that, too often, we re-cycle the social violence that we were subjected to. Their unique approach embraces diverse psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theories, as they look at attachment, legacies of violence, and the role of witnessing in healing. Clinical and personal stories are interwoven with theory to elucidate the socio-historical positions that we inherit and live out. Social justice concerns are addressed throughout, in a mission to heal both individual and collective wounds. Transgenerational Trauma: A Contemporary Introduction offers a nuanced and comprehensive approach to this vital topic, and will be of interest to psychoanalysts, psychologists and other mental health professionals, as well as students and scholars of trauma studies, race and gender studies, sociology, conflict resolution, and others.

Intersectionality and Relational Psychoanalysis: New Perspectives on Race, Gender, and Sexuality examines the links between race, gender, and sexuality through the dual perspectives of relational psychoanalysis and the theory of intersectionality. This anthology discusses the ways in which clinicians and patients inadvertently reproduce experiences of privilege and marginalization in the consulting room. Focusing particularly on the experiences of immigrants, women of color, sex workers, and LGBTQ individuals, the contributing authors explore how similarities and differences between the patient's and analyst's gender, race, and sexual orientation can be acknowledged, challenged, and negotiated. Combining intersectional theory with relational psychoanalytic thought, the authors introduce a number of thought-provoking clinical vignettes to suggest how adopting an intersectional approach can help us navigate the space between pathology and difference in psychotherapy. By bringing together these new psychoanalytically-informed perspectives on clinical work with minority and marginalized individuals, Intersectionality and Relational Psychoanalysis makes an important contribution to psychoanalysis, psychology, and social work.

Race in Psychoanalysis analyzes the often-unrecognized racism in psychoanalysis by examining how the colonialist discourse of late nineteenth-century anthropology made its way into Freud's foundational texts, where it has remained and continues to exert a hidden influence. Recent racial violence, particularly in the US, has made many realize that academic and professional disciplines, as well as social and political institutions, need to be re-examined for the racial biases they may contain. Psychoanalysis is no exception. When Freud applied his insights to the history of the psyche and of civilization, he made liberal use of the anthropology of his time, which was steeped in colonial, racist thought. Although it has often been assumed that this usage was confined to his non-clinical works, this book argues that through the pivotal concept of "primitivity," it fed back into his theories of the psyche and of clinical technique as well. Celia Brickman examines how the discourse concerning the presumed primitivity of colonized and enslaved peoples contributed to psychoanalytic understandings of self and raced other. She shows how psychoanalytic constructions of race and gender are related, and how Freud's attitudes towards primitivity were related to the anti-Semitism of his time. All of this is demonstrated to be part of the modernist aim of psychoanalysis, which seeks to create a modern subjectivity through a renegotiation of the past. Finally, the book shows how all of this can affect both clinician and patient within the contemporary clinical encounter. Race in Psychoanalysis is a pivotal work of significance for scholars, practitioners and students of psychoanalysis, psychologists, clinical social workers, and other clinicians whose work is informed by psychoanalytic insights, as well as those engaged in critical race and postcolonial studies.

Is racial conflict determined by biology or society? So many conflicts appear to be caused by racial and ethnic differences; for example, the cities of Britain and America are regularly affected by race riots. It is argued by socio-biologists and some schools of psychoanalysis that our instincts are programmed to hate those different to us by evolutionary and developmental mechanisms. This book argues against this line, proposing an alternative drawing on insights from diverse disciplines including anthropology, social psychology and linguistics, to give power-relations a critical explanatory role in the generation of hatreds. Farhad Dalal argues that people differentiate between races in order to make a distinction between the 'haves' and 'must-not-haves', and that this process is cognitive, emotional and political rather than biological. Examining the subject over the past thousand years, Race, Colour and the Processes of Racialisation covers: * psychoanalytic and other theories of racism * a new theorisation of racism based on group analytic theory * a general theory of difference based on the works of Fanon, Elias, Matte-Blanco and Foulkes * application of this theory to race and racism. Farhad Dalal concludes that the structures of society are reflected in the structures of the psyche, and both of these are colour coded. This book will be invaluable to students, academics and practitioners in the areas of psychoanalysis, group analysis, psychotherapy and counselling.

“A pathbreaking meditation . . . shifts the discussion . . . from . . . notions of guilt and innocence to the complexities of responsibility and accountability.” —Amir Eshel, Stanford University When it comes to historical violence and contemporary inequality, none of us are completely innocent. We may not be direct agents of harm, but we may still contribute to, inhabit, or benefit from regimes of domination that we neither set up nor control. Arguing that the familiar categories of victim, perpetrator, and bystander do not adequately account for our connection to injustices past and present, Michael Rothberg offers a new theory of political responsibility through the figure of the implicated subject. The Implicated Subject builds on the comparative, transnational framework of Rothberg's influential work on memory to engage in reflection and analysis of cultural texts, archives, and activist movements from such contested zones as transitional South Africa, contemporary Israel/Palestine, post-Holocaust Europe, and a transatlantic realm marked by the afterlives of slavery. An array of globally prominent artists, writers, and thinkers—from William Kentridge, Hito Steyerl, and Jamaica Kincaid, to Hannah Arendt, Primo Levi, Judith Butler, and the Combahee River Collective—speak show how confronting our own implication in difficult histories can lead to new forms of internationalism and long-distance solidarity. “A significant work by a major scholar . . . .While drawing on a global range of histories and texts, the book never loses focus on the contemporary moment.” —Robert Eaglestone, Royal Holloway, University of London “Offer[s] a fresh vocabulary to confront our personal and collective responsibility in the face of massive political violence, past and present.” —Marianne Hirsch, Columbia University

While psychoanalytic scholars often address specific aspects of diversity such as gender, race, immigration, religion, sexual orientation, and social class, the literature lacks a set of core principles to inform and support culturally competent practice. This approachable volume responds to that pressing need. Drawing on the contributions of psychoanalytic scholars as well as multicultural and feminist psychologists, Tummala-Narra presents a theoretical framework that reflects the realities of clients' lives and addresses the complex sociocultural issues that influence their experiences, identity, and psychological health. Psychoanalytic theory proves to be particularly valuable in exploring: The client's and the therapist's indigenous cultural narratives, and the conscious and unconscious meanings and motivations that accompany these narratives The role of context in how clients use language and express affect in psychotherapy The experience of social oppression and its impact on the therapeutic process The dynamic nature of culture, which means that individuals negotiate complex, intersecting cultural identifications An expanded form of self-examination in which the therapist reflects on his or her own sociocultural context In examining these questions, the author provides engaging case illustrations from her own clinical practice, as well as findings from her research with youth of immigrant origin. This book will appeal not only to practitioners of psychoanalytic psychology but to all those interested in the constantly evolving theory and research on effective practice with diverse clients.